Late afternoon traffic slowed on Atlanta Highway, about an hour northeast of Atlanta and just 15 minutes south of Gainesville. Cars stacked around a corner and jammed in front of a brand new, empty warehouse.
“I grew up on this highway, going to La Flor De Jalisco, the Mexican restaurants, the El Salvadorian pupuserias,” said Mateo Penado, as he stood across the street from the warehouse. “The Catholic Church, they still hold the annual Guadalupe celebration.”
In February, the Department of Homeland Security bought the warehouse at 3619 Atlanta Highway in Oakwood for a little more than $68 million as part of its nationwide plan to convert warehouses into Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers. They planned to detain up to 1,600 people in the warehouse.
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